Uranium, perhaps the most strategically important component of heavy minerals, finds particular significance in the nuclear industry. In prospecting trenches, the radioactivity of 238U and 232Th provides a good signature of the presence of heavy minerals. In the work herein, the activity concentrations of several key primordial radionuclides (238U, 232Th, and 40K) were measured in prospecting trenches (each of the latter being of approximately the same geometry and physical situation). All of these are located in the Seila area of the South Eastern desert of Egypt. A recently introduced industry standard, the portable hand-held RS-230 BGO gamma-ray spectrometer (1024 channels) was employed in the study. Based on the measured data, the trenches were classified as either non-regulated (U activity less than 1000 Bq kg-1) or regulated (with 238U activity more than 1000 Bq kg-1). Several radiological hazard parameters were calculated, statistical analysis also being performed to examine correlations between the origins of the radionuclides and their influence on the calculated values. While the radioactivity and hazard parameters exceed United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) guided limits, the mean annual effective doses of 0.49 and 1.4 mSv y-1 in non-regulated and regulated trenches respectively remain well below the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommended 20 mSv/y maximum occupational limit. This investigation reveals that the studied area contains high uranium content, suitable for extraction of U-minerals for use in the nuclear fuel cycle.
The quarry that supplied two of the stones used for vessels during the Early Dynastic Period, green tuff and tuffaceous limestone, has been found on Gebel Manzal el-Seyl in Egypt's Eastern Desert. Scattered across this 3 km long ridge are about 200 excavations, and littering the ground around them are hundreds of roughed-out vessel blanks, several of which are inscribed with the sign n. The blanks were carried across the desert at least 200 km to the Nile Valley where the final carving and polishing was done.VESSELS carved from stone are common items of funerary equipment in tombs of the Late Predynastic Period through Old Kingdom.' In terms of numbers produced and stone varieties used, these vessels peaked during the First to Third Dynasties. Previously, the only known quarry for stone vessels of that date was one for alabaster gypsum at Umm el-Sawan in the Faiyum Depression (fig. 1).2 For all the many other stone varieties employed for vessels, the specific quarry workings had not been identified, although the general geographic sources can be inferred for some. For example, it is known that granite from Aswan was used for vessels but the actual work sites that supplied the stone have not been recognized. Given the general absence of evidence for quarrying, one might suppose that the stones for most vessels were not quarried at all, but rather, were collected as loose blocks or boulders that were then carved. This might well be true for some stone varieties but it was not the case for two of those widely used during the Early Dynastic Period: tuff and tuffaceous limestone.' An extensive quarry for these stones was discovered by the authors at Gebel Manzal el-Seyl in Egypt's Eastern Desert (fig. 1).4 This is only the second known quarry for stone vessels, and its presence in a remote part of the desert suggests that other vessel quarries exist and are still to be found.• The authors wish to thank the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority which sponsored the research, and provided the sample-export and desert permits. The authors are associated with the following institutions which they wish to thank for their cooperation: James A Harrell and V. Max Brown:
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